List of food NOT to feed chickens

[chickengr]

I actually use buttermilk to moisten crumbles if I have a sick or injured bird I am treating. Likewise yogurt is good too, but I think buttermillk is better. Cottage cheese is another one I sometimes use for sick or injured birds. It is OK to give garlic once in a great while to healthy ones. White potatoes definitely not. Before I knew this, years ago I threw some white potatoes & peels in our
compost pile, which the chickens sometimes scratch around in. Shortly thereafter I had two hens sicken and die very quickly. I know they had both recently been in the compost pile
and I am sure they got hold of the white potatoes. .

Ours love watermelon...raw pumpkin and seeds...apples. Pretty much anything, lol.

if the potatoes start to sprout in compost pile they are not safe for chickens. I clean potatoes of buds and give to my chickens without any issues. the other thing that might have happened is that the potatoes peels were sitting on light and turned green. that is toxic too.

 

[chicknmania]

Interesting. Both of those things might have happened, and probably did.

 

[lifeteacher]

I've seen older chicks do this too! They'll grab up something that looks interesting and run around the pen holding it up and the others start chasing after him, only to find out it's just a piece of bark! Playing "Lookie What I've Found!" Maybe they are starting to establish pecking order this way.

I do have a question on topic: What about acorns? Yesterday I crushed a couple and my chickens gobbled them right up. I know they have tannins, but without too much processing will the meat hurt them? I read about boiling, and blanching and blah blah to remove the tannin but I do NOT have time for that. I could give them a whirl in the magic bullet though.

 

[ScottyM]

Hi - Can my meat chickens of seven weeks eat cracked corn as a supplement with their normal grain pellets? They are eating so much now, I'm looking at cost cutting. Thanks! Scotty M.

 

[MeepBeep]

Hi -  Can my meat chickens of seven weeks eat cracked corn as a supplement with their normal grain pellets?  They are eating so much now, I'm looking at cost cutting.  Thanks!   Scotty M.

Sure you can, but corn is a high energy food, it's not a balanced diet and it's low in protein, and thus should be treated as a treat consisting of no more than about 10% of their balanced diet... AKA you can mix 10 lbs of corn into 100 lbs of balanced feed, any more and you can start to see their growth slow down or stunt and or other possible ailments appear...

To be blunt, you won't save any money feeding them corn, because the pounds of feed vs weight gain will plummet, you will need to feed them 2 or 3 units of corn to see the same weight gain you see with 1 unit of balanced grower feed... This is because protein is what builds meat and corn only has about 7% protein (unbalanced amino acids), while a balanced grower feed has about 18-21% (balanced amino acids)... Balanced protein content is very important because no matter how much protein overall is in the feed, if there is a shortage of any one needed amino acid in that protein content then that single amino acid will be the determining limiter...

Example your body needs one red, one white and one blue amino acid for digestion... If the feed has 100 reds, 50 whites and 10 blues (160 overall protein units) then blue is the limiting amino acid and you will only be able to make 10 blocks, with 90 reds and 40 whites going to waste aka poop... While a balanced feed of 10 reds, 10 whites and 10 blues (only 30 overall protein units) would still allow you to make 10 blocks with no waist even though it has much lower overall protein... What we see from the example is that even though the first feed had over 5 times the amount of protein it provided no benefit... This is why balance nutrition and a balanced protein content is important...

So even if you are getting corn at $7 a 50lb bag, when you multiply that $7 by 2 or 3 you are likely exceeding what it cost to just get a 50lb bag of grower, and you still lack a balanced diet with that much corn, so much of that is going right out the back end as waist while your birds are likely to suffer from other nutrient deficiencies if they live long enough...

 

[chickengr]

Hi - Can my meat chickens of seven weeks eat cracked corn as a supplement with their normal grain pellets? They are eating so much now, I'm looking at cost cutting. Thanks! Scotty M.

my vet does not recommend it. he says that as meat birds grow quickly they have sensitive stomach and intestines and cracked corn might cause bleeding. if you decide to give some corn give them corn meal.

 

[spoikey]

Hi - Can my meat chickens of seven weeks eat cracked corn as a supplement with their normal grain pellets? They are eating so much now, I'm looking at cost cutting. Thanks! Scotty M.

Last year I raised 1oo meat birds. I supplemented their food with scrap produce from the local fruit and vegetable stand. Lots of it.. They grew just fine and I believe they were healthier than if on a strict diet of grower food. I had content and happy birds that weighed out at between 5# and 8# at 6 - 1/2 weeks.

 

[nanagaylene]

Can chickens eat lantana leaves, berries, flowers? What about prycanthia leaves, berries, flowers? Last, mesquite leaves?

 

[chickengr]

Can chickens eat lantana leaves, berries, flowers? What about prycanthia leaves, berries, flowers? Last, mesquite leaves?

lantana and prycanthia are toxic. I had some lantana in the chickens run but they didn't try to eat it. I picked it up as it is invasive. I am not familiar with mesquite.

 

[sjturner79]

I have found some new ones- pegs, bean bag beans, plastic tags off bread.

I has chickens try and eat all of these today. Pretty sure it's not good for them.